I was pulling out of a shopping center the other evening when, to my surprise, I saw a Pontiac Parisienne ahead of me. And in the dark, how did I know it was a Brougham and not a standard ’86 Parisienne?

Why, from its glowing opera lamp, of course. While the 1983-84 Parisiennes (an ’84 is shown above) were clearly badge-engineered from the Caprice, 1985 models regained the 1980-81 Bonneville rear quarters, fender skirts and tail panel–and opera lamps on the Brougham! I already had Pontiacs on the brain–especially Grand Villes–due to my New Year’s post last week, so this “Capricienne” was a happy little cap to the day.

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Back in college, I had a 1985 Parisienne in a lovely Dark Cherry Craquelure-texture finish with an oxidized vinyl top. In the Pittsburgh winters, the inch of ice on the roof would weave itself into the open fibers of the vinyl top, and I would open the huge moonroof, giving me an icy skylight. It wore a set of Cragar SS rims that I put on all my cars around that time–real cognitive dissonance with those fender skirts. The 4.3 didn’t quite burn oil, but it “used” about a quart per month. The interior velour was excellent–firm, comfortable, rich-looking. Man, I miss that car.

Pontiac was so Disrespectful to the Bonneville. First with the 63 Gran Prix outshining it. Then later The Grand Ville. Further putting it on the mid’size platform. And This Parisianne as a Caprice, Then re-introducing new 1981 styling in 1985!!!…

Funny They Had such success with the later Bonneville FWD models.

I love that you get so excited seeing a taillight, and then The Opera light. What gene do we share that this excites us so?

In the early 80’s, GM had grand plans to continue the downsizing process until it swtiched all cars to FWD. The plan was that all b-cars were to swtich to FWD around 1985-86, but in the end only the Olds and Buick did in 1986 followed by Pontiac in 1987. These cars became the GM H-body instead of replacing the B-body like they were intended. GM planned to have an intermediate step between the 1977 B-body and the 1986 H-car and that was to downsize the B-bodies to the G-body line. Originally, Chevrolet had planned for 1983 (approx) to have the Caprice Impala to be a rebadged Malibu. Of course, sales of big cars picked up and this plan never came to light as the B-body continued until 1996.

That said, Pontaic did carry out its plan to downsize the Bonneville to the smaller G-body which is why we had the small Bonneville for 1982. GM of Canada was not happy about this move, as for many years fullsize Pontiacs were big sellers in Canada, having unique Canadian models and being more of a entry level car than in the US. So, with its limited resources, GM of Canada decided to take matters into its own hands, and make a unique fullsize Pontiac, much like it did in the past. The result was the badged engineered Caprice, or the 1982 Pontiac Parisienne (sold in Canada only).

Now, in the US, Pontiac dealers were not happy about the lack of a real fullsize car for 1982. With fuel prices coming down and fullsize sales increasing, they wanted a big car to compete. So, GM decided the quickest and easiest solution was to have GM of Canada build more Parisiennes and import them to the US to sell in the US market as well. So for 1983, the Parisienne was introduced to the American Market along side the smaller Bonneville.

By 1985, changes were made to the car be reusing the old 1981 quarter panel dies to make the Parisienne more unique from the Caprice/Impala. Then in 1987, the H-body Bonneville replaced the Parisienne, while the Safari wagon continued until 1989.

We had a plain jane 1984 Parisienne wagon, with a 305 Chevy. This was one of the best and most reliable cars were ever owned.

The Post 1977 B-cars shared a lot of similarities with the 73-77 A-cars, but they were not identical. I have owned both and there are significant differences in the frame design. Some suspension parts are interchangeable, some are not. But overall they are very similar, and even share the same wheelbase 116″ (4-door Colonnades).

This was also the case with the Panther cars and the 72-79 mid-sized Fords (Torino et al). The frame design and dimensions are very similar (approx. 114″ wheelbase two door and Panthers), but the Panther adopted a different from and rear suspension layout. Even with that, springs and shocks will interchange between both platforms. If you look at each on a hoist you can clearly see the evolution.

My DD is a 1986 Parisienne Base model, 305 4bbl, 700 r4, stock except for a mild performance cam and a less restrictive cat and muffler. I love it, its really solid and gets 23-25 mpg on the highway. its a base car, so it has a/c (standard) but no cruise, crank windows, and 2 speed wipers w/o intermittent. Its my favourite vehicle ive ever owned!

@BillM “Now, in the US, Pontiac dealers were not happy about the lack of a real fullsize car for 1982. With fuel prices coming down and fullsize sales increasing, they wanted a big car to compete. So, GM decided the quickest and easiest solution was to have GM of Canada build more Parisiennes and import them to the US to sell in the US market as well. So for 1983, the Parisienne was introduced to the American Market along side the smaller Bonneville.”

I thought I would point out that only the 83-84 Parisienne’ were built in Canada. For 85-86 Production moved to the Fairfax Kansas assembly line. This was a different line than the facility that built the W-Bodies and the current Malibu in Fairfax. Also, some of those 82 G-Bonnies(and GrandPrix) were built on the Sainte-Therese Quebec line that later produced 3rd and 4th gen F-Bodies.

If I’m not mistaken the Canadian market cars didn’t have the electronic engine controls that the US market had. I know this was the case for the carb’d models and not the EFI/TBI versions of the G-Body.

Sorry, I forgot to mention the production change. Initially, the cars were all Canadian built. By this time in the 80’s the practice of producing Canadian market cars in Canada had pretty much been abondoned.

Canadian cars did not use the E4MC Quadrajet (aka feedback carb) in these years, they still used fully mechanical Q-jets. I believe aroun 1987 or 1988 Candian market cars started to use the feedback carbs, but by this time, other than the B-body, most had dumped carbs by then.

Since the Parisienne used a regular bulb light, it still works and is easy to repair, if it would have had the fancier “electroluminescent coach lamps” it would have been harder to spot, since most beater electro coach lamp cars dont have them working, the electroluminescent lights are very cool, they used a material that glowed when power was passed through it, they can be restored if your handy.

Hey, I’ve got a few of those Rs! I recently scored some EL C-pillar crests off an early 90’s Sixty-Special that got scrapped..not realizing how rare these actually were. Cadillac charged $90 apiece for the little things before they discontinued them.

Some of the early 80’s Park Avenues’ RH instrument panel covers (where the big clock SHOULD be) are EL also: the “Park Avenue” script actually glows. I have one of these too but never remembered to grab the power supply required to run it. They require higher voltages to work.

You got any links to instructions/factoids on these? I’d like to test mine out & repair them if they’re out.

Have no idea if this is showing up or not the site seems to have gone crazy, I tried posting on another article and that came up but for some reason I cant post here.

Here goes again

I’ve never had a car with them, but somehow I know I will at one point so I’ve read just a little bit about them. I remember the soft cool glow these used to have. Go to Cadillacfourms and search, there is a guy there that re-built one, there was also a piece on instructables.com where a guy rebuilt them for a 1985 Park Avenue. They do require a power inverter or something thats usually located in the trunk, I think it should be the same for all GM cars that use EL lights.

The 1980-1984 Park Avenue and the 1984-1987 Regal Limited had an EL lit dash panel over the glove box, it was very cool looking. I was on the FWD Park Avenue too, but for 1985 only as far as I can tell, then it was dropped.

I’ve never had a car with them, but somehow I know I will at one point so I’ve read just a little bit about them. I remember the soft cool glow these used to have. Go to Cadillacfourms and search, there is a guy there that re-built one, there was also a piece on instructables.com where a guy rebuilt them for a 1985 Park Avenue. They do require a power inverter or something thats usually located in the trunk, I think it should be the same for all GM cars that use EL lights.

The 1980-1984 Park Avenue and the 1984-1987 Regal Limited had an EL lit dash panel over the glove box, it was very cool looking. I was on the FWD Park Avenue too, but for 1985 only as far as I can tell, then it was dropped.

Gas prices in 1983 came down, but not back to 69 cents as they were before 1979 Oil Shock. What mostly helped car sales was lower interest rates and pent up demand for new big cars.

Big car owners who switched to X cars in 1980, then wanted a big car again. In other words, they “got used to” the gas prices, and couldn’t stand their “little X car”. So, the B bodies did well 1983-85, before the forced downsizing.

One reason the Chevy B body stayed was police and taxi fleet sales. Caddy Brougham was to counter the revived Town Car. If GM were smarter, they could have kept a “classic” B body for Buick and Olds, to compete with Grand Marq/Crown Vic.

I agree with you to a degree, that after a price spike, a moderately lower price became a new normal that people got used to, much like we welcome $3.25/gal gas today instead of the $4/gal price of the recent past. Still, the decrease from 1981 to 1983 was fairly substantial. I remember this era quite vividly, as I was delivering pizzas in college and buying my own gas.

I just ran an inflation calculator, and .69/gal gas in 1978 would have increased to 1.06/gal in 1983, purely through inflation. I recall paying around $1.45-1.55/gal in 1981-82, so an decrease down closer to a dollar would have been fairly substantial. Also, there were no longer any fears of impending lines and shortages that had colored everyone’s thinking in 1978-80.

The reason GM could not sell more B bodies was CAFE. GM was more dependent on big car sales than anyone else, and struggled to stay under the threshold for the gas-guzzler tax. The 1980s downsizing was purely CAFE driven. It is a shame that GM botched the job so badly, as its pre-CAFE cars had improved quite a bit from earlier 1970s versions.

Yes it was available. I remember seeing a white ’86 with tan leather in the junkyard, about ten years ago. An apparent engine fire victim. I almost cried!

I have that same brochure Richard, thanks to an ebay spending spree in the late ’90s. I have the ’85 catalog too.

When I was a little kid, a lady at Dad’s office had a metallic tan ’86 ‘Risienne with tan cloth as a company car. Quite different from Dad’s ’84 Volvo 240GL. I rode in it at least once when Dad was driving it for some reason. I guess it made an impression on seven-year-old-me, as I love these cars. She later traded it in for a new ’89 Ninety Eight Regency Brougham. She had good taste!

Colin Evans

Posted January 13, 2013 at 11:09 AM

I love how GM had such distinct leather interiors for their entire model lineups from 1979-1983, its a shame they are so rare i.e

I know some of the other GM interiors were redesigned (I think 1984?), both the buick park avenue and the oldsmobile 98 regency had their interiors changed (it was a bad design in my view- they looked really plain to the earlier editions)

pontiac on the other hand kept thier unique pillow style in velour, so it would make sense to keep the leather as well